Letter to the Editor

Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 10:05pm

Seriously? One hundred bikes for citizens to pedal around town over the next two years? How many people — man with their more than 25 percent body fat — can pedal the city's hills on a single-gear bike?

If Nashville wants to really “go green,” the city should take a look at the cycle program Paris instituted for its citizens: a metered point-to-point program that Parisians actually use. Then Metro would have to make its immediate downtown area a no-private-car zone limited to commercial vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and those mostly empty Metro buses we see every day. That is, if you wanted more than a symbolic gnat effort thrown out as Nashville being a more “bicycle friendly” community.

A stiff Davidson County gas tax for non-commercial vehicles would help as well if you really wanted to change commuting behavior and create a more green image.

14 Comments on this post:

Yeah, we need to punish all those people out of doing things I do not like! Tax them back to the stone age to make them do what I want them to do.

By:dargent7 on 8/5/11 at 6:16

Reid is right. Those single gear cruisers cannot make it up Broadway to Centennial park.
Lance Armstrong couldn't make it.

By:yogiman on 8/5/11 at 6:19

Do they even make single-gear bikes any more? I'd rather have a gas motored bike myself.

By:BenDover on 8/5/11 at 7:43

Ahhh... blow it out your @$$, Reid.

By:girliegirl on 8/5/11 at 8:10

So....we bought our teenager an electric bicycle, to encourage him to go outdoors more, and also at the request of his therapist. Several months ago, the neighborhood association out her in OH sent me a scathing letter, claiming it was a motorcycle, no less and that he was under age, etc....illegal activity, yada yada yada. Two days ago, I called the management office and threatened a lawsuit on behalf of all ADA out here who cannot maneuver a bicycle up a hill. They called back later, spent nearly an hour on the phone with me, and after much coaxing, agreed that cyclists do NOT have to ride on sidewalks, as they'd threatened me earlier in a letter, AND that there should be accommodations for said groups to encourage them to get outside without having to use a automobile for said transportation. As I hung up the phone, the thought occurred to me that not everyone's going to go to that much trouble each time they come up against this discrimination. How sad for us all.

By:Ingleweird on 8/5/11 at 8:13

Blow your own hot exhaust out your own tailpipe, Ben. The LTE author has an excellent point. Even 3-speed bikes would be an improvement. I ride a bike, but I wouldn't even touch these single-speeders if the opportunity presented itself. Too many hills in town to be remotely practical. Public bikes: great concept, crappy implementation.

By:yogiman on 8/5/11 at 9:19

Do they still make single speeders, ingleweird? I thought 'them wuz the good ol' days'. You know, like the good old two wheel drive Model Ts with a stick shift geared automobiles.

By:Ingleweird on 8/5/11 at 9:43

Yes, Yogi, they do. Did you read the LTE? Although the downtown bikes have actually been out for some time.

By:yogiman on 8/5/11 at 9:59

Yeah, Ingleweird, I saw it, but I really can't remember the last single-speed bike I've seen. I thought they all went to "big time".

By:Magnum on 8/5/11 at 2:53

If they exclude me and my gas guzzling suv from downtown, but allow Metro buses, can they in turn prevent the buses from leaving downtown. I can add 10 minutes to my commute anytime one of these things and its 4 passengers jumps out in front of me. It's maddening.

By:budlight on 8/5/11 at 3:48

Ingle, what about people like me with handicaps? I can't ride a bike safely! I don't want to ride a bike in Nashville; it's too scarey. But I am courteous when I see a bike person cutting in and out of traffic and disobeying the laws. Or when they are on the sidewalk going in the opposite flow of traffic. Or when they run red lights, etc.

Gotta go. No more biking for today.

By:yogiman on 8/5/11 at 6:54

You could use a scooter, budlight. Just don't go downhill too fast.

By:parnell3rd on 8/8/11 at 10:35

It was all good until the extra taxes.
I enjoy our "greenways" on a bicycle. I find it interesting that the paths are "asphault". Is this "green"? I think asphault retains heat. That should send the global warming nuts over the edge!
On the gasoline tax, did you know the state's collect the tax, send it to the federal gov't, then they send it back to the state's. That sounds efficient.

By:localboy on 8/10/11 at 12:06

'puff puff' I would have commented sooner but I rode my bike through town...'puff' 'puff'